The cover of our CD booklet features the roofscape of the Grand Colonnade at the Czech Spa of Marienbad (Marianske Lazne). Its structure combines complexity and structural integrity with beauty – indeed the two are inter-dependent, and each may be considered the result of the other. Thus with the Art of the Fugue; this is some of the most structured, and structurally complex music ever composed, yet in its complexity and structural integrity lies the secret of its beauty, a beauty which can indeed be experienced and enjoyed without any knowledge or awareness of the underlying structure whatsoever.

The relationship between structure and emotion was expressed indirectly by Bach during the artistic dispute between himself and Scheibe during the years 1737-1739:

The true amenity of music consists in the connection and alternation of consonances and dissonances without hurt to the harmony. The nature of music demands this. The various passions, especially the dark ones, cannot be expressed with fidelity to Nature without this alternation.

In Bach's view of nature and harmony, the connection and alternation of consonances and dissonances was governed by counterpoint. And it is the timeless value of counterpoint, way beyond the scope of old and new techniques, styles, or manners of composing, that he thought needed to be upheld. Thus he devised a plan that would center systematically on fugal composition, and The Art of the Fugue was born.

The order of fugues and canons in the Schmieder Catalog (BWV) simply reflects the random order in which the printing plates had been bundled together after Bach's death. Though this order is normally used in performances and recordings, it does not provide a coherent program for ideal listening. Bach's own rule was: begin with simplicity, move towards complexity. We have respected this natural order; however since the complete work is far too demanding to be heard in one sitting, we offer the work as two programs each complete in itself, each offering all the major structural forms, each starting with simplicity then continuing into increasing complexity, and each ending with a powerful Triple Fugue.

Our performance is given by a chamber orchestra; we feel that this instrumentation offers the listener the two most important factors: clarity of structure, and enjoyability. The Canons are distinguished tonally by performance on the historic Hildebrandt organ at Naumburg, completed in 1747 and certificated by Bach himself in company with his old friend Gottfried Silbermann, the Saxon master organ builder.

Though it is clearly academic or tutorial in its nature and purpose, the Art should in no way be considered a dry academic work; it is possible to present it as such, and indeed some performances do just that. But not ours. Our performance and recording, from the choice of instrumentation and performance style to recording ambience and balance, has but two objectives: clarity and enjoyability. When listening to the different fugues one can follow clearly the contrapuntal patterns; yet at the same time one is moved by the sheer beauty of the music itself. Anyone who passes over this work as a dry academic exercise is missing some of the most powerful music of the baroque era.

How, as we listen to this late work, may we visualize the Master in his latter years? One popular portrait of Bach is by Elias Gottlieb Haussmann, Court Painter at Dresden. Bach is seen holding a fragment of a Canon. Though widely used in musical literature today, the somewhat distorted expression was surely not an accurate image of the Master. Haussmann painted the portraits of several of Leipzig's Mayors, and on close inspection one is struck by the fineness of the brushwork and accuracy of detail - in complete contrast to the hurried brushwork, rough strokes and lack of detail in Haussmann's Bach portrait. There is in fact an old Leipzig tradition, that Bach was always in a hurry, would never sit for long, and that Haussmann complained he was never able to finish the work properly.

Be that as it may, an alternative is the wonderful Altersbild, the Portrait of Bach in Old Age shown at right and on the back cover of our CD booklet, published in 1904 as Volume IV part 2 of the New Bachgesellschaft. Here, surely, is the strict yet compassionate face of the Bach whose latter years gave us the B-Minor Mass, the Goldberg Variations, the Musical Offering and the Art of the Fugue.